Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Israel: Palestinians

The Marquess of Lothian: To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel concerning the raid by the Israeli military in Nablus on 22 February to arrest three wanted militants, which reportedly resulted in the killing of 10 Palestinians and the injuring of over 100.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: I [Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon] set out the UK's consistent position in a statement 23 February. Israel has a right to self-defence but its security operations must also be in line with international law. Where security measures are required, we encourage Israel to deploy these in a way which minimises tension and uses only appropriate force. When there are accusations of excessive force, we advocate for swift, transparent investigations. The Israeli security forces must provide adequate protection to the Palestinian civilian population and show restraint in the use of live fire.

Department for Work and Pensions

Universal Credit

Lord Field of Birkenhead: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have considered the potential merits of including the need to use a food bank, alongside undue hardship, in the criteria which may exempt claimants from having deductions taken from their universal credit claim.

Viscount Younger of Leckie: There has been no specific consideration around the merits of including food bank usage when considering claimants for an exception from deductions. The Government recognises the importance of supporting claimants to manage their liabilities. Under Universal Credit, there is a co-ordinated approach to deductions from benefit, which supports claimants to manage their financial obligations. The primary aim of deductions in Universal Credit is to protect vulnerable claimants by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of essential services. We continue to aim to strike the right balance between ensuring those protections are in place, and allowing claimants to retain as much of their award as possible for day-to-day needs. If a claimant is struggling financially, they can ask for the amount of certain deductions to be reconsidered. Financial hardship decisions are made for any of the following:Repaying benefit overpayments,Social Fund loan; andRent arrears. Benefit debts and Social Fund loans can see deductions reduced and/or deferred. The DWP will always try to ensure that Government debt is recovered effectively without causing undue hardship. For those repaying a New Claim Advance, a deferral of up to 3 months is available, in exceptional circumstances, which allow those claimants to temporarily receive their Universal Credit awards without advance repayments being deducted. For rent arrears, claimants can ask Universal Credit staff to exercise their discretion to fix rent arrears deductions at the lowest rate in legislation – 10% of the Standard Allowance. This can be done using the Journal or by telephone. However, UC staff would not agree to remove a rent arrears deduction entirely to ensure a claimant is protected from eviction. We encourage anyone unable to afford the proposed rate of repayment to contact DWP Debt Management at the earliest opportunity - all DWP notifications advise how to get in touch. We seek to do as much as we are able to support claimants through the recovery of their overpayments.

Universal Credit

Lord Field of Birkenhead: To ask His Majesty's Government how many universal credit claims were subject to deductions in the most recent month for which data are available, broken down by parliamentary constituency; how much was the (1) total, and (2) average, sum of deductions in each constituency; and what proportion of those sums was deducted to repay advance payments.

Viscount Younger of Leckie: The Government recognises the importance of supporting the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt. We seek to balance recovery of debt against not causing hardship for claimants and their families. Processes are in place to ensure deductions are manageable, and customers can contact the DWP Debt Management Team if they are experiencing financial hardship, to discuss a reduction in their rate of repayment, or a temporary suspension, depending on their financial circumstances. Since April 2021, we have reduced the normal maximum rate of deductions in Universal Credit from 40% to 25% of a claimant’s Standard Allowance. These positive measures were put in place to support claimants to manage financial difficulties. Advances are a claimant’s benefit entitlement paid early, allowing claimants to access 100% of their estimated Universal Credit payment upfront. They ensure nobody has to wait for a payment in Universal Credit, and those who need it are able to receive financial support as soon as possible. Claimants can receive up to 100% of their estimated Universal Credit award if required, resulting in 25 payments over a 24-month period. This is not a debt. The requested analysis of Universal Credit claims with a deduction in November 2022 by parliamentary constituency in Great Britain (GB) is provided in the separate spreadsheet.   Spreadsheet HL5652 (xls, 767.0KB)

Access to Work Programme

Lord Blunkett: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byViscount Younger of Leckie on 14 February (HL5193), whether that figure includes (1) claims made within a person's Access to Work agreement, and (2) new claims for a new job where the claimant receivedAccess to Work support in their previous employment.

Viscount Younger of Leckie: The figure provided on 14th February (HL5193) is inclusive of both, claims made within a person’s Access to Work agreement and new claims for a new job where the claimant received Access to Work support in their previous employment.

Department of Health and Social Care

NHS: Waiting Lists

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: To ask His Majesty's Government what independent assessment has been made of the removal of 16 per cent of the East Sussex waiting list through "error identification" as described in the NHS England board papers for 2 February; and how many of those removed were subsequently added back on to the waiting list.

Lord Markham: Whilst no independent assessment has been carried out on the removal of patients from the waiting list at East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, this has been investigated by NHS England and identified as an error in reporting.The correct percentage of the waiting list that was flagged for removal through error identification is 14%.At a local level, there is a requirement to follow three stages in waiting list validation: technical, administrative and clinical. Patients who are initially flagged for removal then undergo a manual validation stage whereby trust staff validate that the identified patients should be removed before actioning this themselves. This is supported by local governance arrangements and clinical oversight, to ensure that patients are removed safely and appropriately. All patients removed from waiting lists following validation are notified of this stage in their care pathway. Therefore, it is not expected that any patients would need be ‘readded’ due to the processes in place.

Mental Health Services: Finance

Lord Stevens of Birmingham: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 9 February (HL 5339), whether NHS England and integrated care board aggregate NHS mental health expenditure would still be expected to increase as a share of their total expenditure in 2023/24 compared with 2022/23 if "non-recurrent" expenditure had not been excluded from the baseline calculation; and if not, to itemise and quantify expected "non-recurrent" expenditure in both years.

Lord Markham: The non-recurrent expenditure excluded from the baseline calculation is the specific funding provided at Spending Review 2021 for costs relating to COVID-19. Central funding for pensions costs is also excluded as this cannot be split between staff working on mental health and other areas. However, making no adjustments, mental health expenditure as a share of total National Health Service expenditure is still expected to increase, from 8.3% in 2022/23 to 8.5% in 2023/24.